Edible Undies

Smart Coasters

Wonton Origami

Pomegranate Wine

Salt and Pepper Scooter

Source: Slashdot | 17 Oct 2008 | 11:00 pm

Petrobras has record oil production in Brazil in Sept

SAO PAULO Oct 17 (Reuters) - Brazilian oil giant Petrobras said on Friday it had produced record amounts of average oil in Brazil last month.
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Oct 2008 | 10:53 pm

Wii-controlled guitar

Rob Morris added a Wiimote to his guitar and ran the accelerometer output through his synth gear. The result is quite cool, in a “I taped a Wiimote to my guitar” kind of way and but he sadly doesn’t include instructions for us who would like to be about to rock, Wario-style.

Source: CrunchGear | 17 Oct 2008 | 10:44 pm

What Yahoo’s Looming Costs Cuts Actually Mean (Not as Many Layoffs as You Think) [BoomTown]

A lot has been written about the need for drastic layoffs at Yahoo, including reports that the troubled company was preparing to fire from 3,000 to 3,500 of its 15,000 employees.

As dramatic as that figure is, according to numerous sources, it’s more likely that Yahoo will cut only half that, beginning sometime in mid-December.

That date could move up, of course, depending on how bad the economic outlook get for Yahoo, but it is not likely Yahoo will make any move in front of its earnings next Tuesday, October 21.

Why? Well, because what Yahoo’s top brass has already done is given its managers cost-cutting targets and not specific marching orders on laying off a certain number of people across the board.

And that’s even if the management consulting company that Yahoo has hired to look over the company’s operations, Bain & Co., recommends more.

In addition, the figures that top execs–such as SVPs Hilary Schneider and Ash Patel–have handed down to their minions is a process that includes considerable negotiating and maneuvering among and between various managers. So, nothing is set in stone.

Thus, how Yahoo (YHOO) under-bosses reach those goals and what gets lopped does not have to necessarily be employees.

For example, a manager could table a project in the search area or perhaps not expand features planned.

Of course, slashing employee costs is always the easiest way to show significant cuts, and it does send a definite message to investors that Yahoo realizes it must clean up its operations.

“But that’s hacking and we have to be more surgical,” said one exec involved in the process.

But look for more cuts in staff in certain areas, because people are its major cost, such as in Yahoo’s finance, human resources and general and administrative units.

Of course, if its economic situation continues to dim and its stock keeps up its downward slide, Yahoo could move to more dramatic staff cuts, which many feel it should do right away.

One note: If Yahoo manages to successfully complete its merger talks with Time Warner (TWX) over its AOL unit before the December cost-cutting moves go into effect, the company could hold off all cuts until the pair figure out their integration plans.

And then, I would expect, the really large-scale layoffs would begin.

Source: All Things Digital | 17 Oct 2008 | 10:39 pm

Obama buys first video game campaign ads (Reuters)

Reuters - Barack Obama, flush with cash and ramping up his advertising in the final weeks before the November 4 election, is making U.S. political history by placing the first presidential campaign ads in online video games.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Oct 2008 | 10:33 pm

Using corrugated signs to heat your house (Tip: Don’t burn them)

This little experiment is fairly complex but it’s an interesting examination of forcing heat through corrugation in order to absorb head and blow it through your house this summer. Doable? Sure. Cheap? Sure. Kind of weird? Absolutely.

The presenters suggest that those plastic political signs in your neighbors’ driveways are a great way to gather waterproof corrugation without much expense. Whatever you use, however, you’re basically getting free energy.

My only question here is how to pump the heat out of the sheet without using more energy than you would by just running a heater. Any ideas? Maybe wind power? Mice?

via Treehugger

Source: CrunchGear | 17 Oct 2008 | 10:31 pm

US sharply tightens air quality standards for lead

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced the tightest air quality standards for lead in 30 years, but warned it will take four years to enforce them as the existing monitoring...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Oct 2008 | 10:30 pm

Biogen amends bylaws to discourage proxy battles

LOS ANGELES, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Biotechnology company Biogen Idec Inc has amended its corporate bylaws to require shareholders looking to nominate directors or propose other resolutions to disclose more...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Oct 2008 | 10:22 pm

Windows 7 Internals Not Looking Much Different Than Vista’s

This enormous and allegedly unsolicited blog entry by an "ordinary Joe developer" (is he related to the plumber?) details some of the under-the-hood stuff that's going on with Windows 7 development. Although Ballmer has described 7 as being "Windows Vista with clean-up in user interface [and] improvements in performance," this guy seems to think it's a little more than that. I nursed my hope that 7 would be a completely different experience for a while, but now it seems less and less likely by the day.

Source: TechCrunch | 17 Oct 2008 | 10:18 pm

Flash and the Pan: 4 Tapeless AVCHD Camcorders Tested

Still using tapes in your camcorder? Okay, Grog — maybe you can take a second to show us your methods for hunting wooly mammoths...after you've mastered fire, of course. For the truly evolved, a flash based AVCHD camcorder is a must. Digi-cams recording with this format support full HD video, can easily burn to Blu-ray, with the best ones sporting prices that don't feel like you're being clubbed over the noggin'. — Jackson Lynch

Panasonic HDC-SD9

Despite being released back in January of this year, the 1920 x 1080, 10x optical zoom SD9 is (still) the top performer. Touted by Panasonic as the world’s smallest full HD cam, its slimmed down profile makes it a real winner with the portability crowd. HD image quality and compression are noticeably ahead of other cams in this round-up, but there’s still some ghosting and artifacts in certain (read: low light) situations. The menu system is classic Panasonic simple and easy to learn, but the joystick has been moved into the LCD cavity, hampering movement and versatility. The rest of the controls are nicely placed with smooth well-modulated zoom and a fumble-resistant dedicated optical image stabilization button.

WIRED Small, well-built design. Simple menu system. Top notch battery life.

TIRED Moving the joystick to the LCD bridled shooting ease. Shrunken size compromised comfort and usability.

$800, panasonic.com

Sanyo VPC-1010

Standing apart from the crowd with its unique form factor, this Sanyo AVCHD video cam is a pocket-sized video rocket shooting 1080p at 30 frames per second with a 38-380mm zoom. The novel design and sharp video are complemented by functions like Face Detection and Face Chaser which zero in on faces in the scene and both focus and adjust the exposure on the fly. It works surprisingly well and delivers some delicious video to the SD/SDHC memory format.  The 1010 also records fairly sharp 4-megapixel stills as long as ambient light isn’t terribly low. In spite of all this goodness Sanyo may have been asleep at the wheel by not including optical image stabilization. If you can live with merely digital IS, then take good look at this multifaceted camcorder.

WIRED Easy to handle form factor. 10x optical zoom. 4-megapixel stills on the fly. Admirable video quality.

TIRED  No optical image stabilization. Sound is a touch weak.

$800, sanyo.com

JVC GZ-HD40

JVC’s upgrade to a bigger CMOS sensor and the switch to AVCHD have reaped big dividends for the HD40 and its massive (and heavy) 120GB hard drive. Video quality has greatly improved from previous JVC models and the dual compression option, which includes MPEG-2 TS and MPEG-4, gives you a choice between video quality and more content per gigabyte. The HD40 is almost ceryainly geared slightly more toward experienced shooters who want more control over their settings. Making video in automatic mode delivered an occasional rollercoaster ride with auto focus lagging and white balance showing inconsistencies. JVC includes a few effective semi-auto function buttons like the Spot Exposure Control which provides more accurate reading of the setting; and Backlight Compensation which opens up the exposure when there’s bright light behind your subject.

WIRED Sharp video with two compression choices. CMOS sensor a big upgrade for video quality. Comfortable ergonomics.

TIRED Auto white balance was inconsistent. 120GB HDD makes it heavy. Auto mode shooting is inconsistent.

$1300, jvc.com

Panasonic HDC-SX5

Yes, yes yes, we know...another Panasonic in our round-up. But we felt that if the HDC-SD9 is a role model for how to build a great tapeless camera, then the HDC-SX5 is a prime example of how not to build one.  The convergence concept may have gone a bit awry when Panasonic schemed to combine DVD and SD/SDHC media into an AVCHD (1920 x 1080) shooter. In the quest to give consumers more options things only get more complicated.  The snag isn’t the high def angle because the video quality is actually very admirable. The problem lies with the DVD integration – it’s a headache, which adds time, expense, size, weight and a whole lotta mini DVDs to the equation. Complicating things even more is a somewhat arcane menu system that isn’t really geared to the novice and takes a while to get your arms around.

WIRED Comfy ergonomics. Good video quality.

TIRED Expensive and bulky. Not meant for novice shooters.

$1200, panasonic.com

(Images by Panasonic, Sanyo, and JVC)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 17 Oct 2008 | 10:17 pm

13 Employees Laid Off At VoIP Startup Jaxtr

Jaxtr, a startup that offers VoIP serivce as well as a social network, has laid off 13 of its employees and has been added to the layoff tracker. As of June 2008 the company had 35 employees (we’ve asked the company for the current count). Update: The company now has 30 full time employees.

CEO Konstantin Guericke says that the company is well positioned to weather the economic downturn, as it has not yet spent any of the $10 million Series B round it raised in June. He says that along with the company’s revenue streams and growth, the cash will be enough to sustain the for at least 18 months, and that it will continue to hire for essential positions like web developers and system administrators.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch | 17 Oct 2008 | 10:15 pm

QOTD [Digital Daily]

QOTD

Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2.”

– Apple CEO Steve Jobs’s 14-word email reply to customers annoyed by the removal of the FireWire port from the new 13-inch MacBook

Source: All Things Digital | 17 Oct 2008 | 10:12 pm

A Brief History of Features Apple Has Killed

Technologizer writes "Some folks are outraged over the lack of FireWire in the new MacBook released this week. But Apple wouldn't be Apple if it didn't move faster than any other computer company to kill technologies that may be past their prime. And history usually validates its decisions. We've posted a decade's worth of examples that prove the point."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 17 Oct 2008 | 10:12 pm

Cuddle up with a nice keyblanket

Is it art? Is it furniture? And does it make a clicky noise when you roll on it? All these questions and more remain unanswered regarding this fascinating “fabric” made from 22,528 recycled keys. Actually, it’s an “interactive sculpture” that “documents its own creation” because the keys spell out emails between the artist and the fabricators. Wait, is it art if the artist has someone else “fabricate” it? Maybe the artist’s statement will clear all this up. Let’s see… nope!
[via Notcot and Technabob]

Source: CrunchGear | 17 Oct 2008 | 10:01 pm

NASA sees no quick fix for broken Hubble telescope (AP)

AP - NASA's efforts to get the ailing Hubble Space Telescope working again have hit a snag, and engineers are trying to figure out their next step.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Oct 2008 | 9:43 pm

Low-level MS guy says: Windows 7 is different, better

This enormous and allegedly unsolicited blog entry by an “ordinary Joe developer” (is he related to the plumber?) details some of the under-the-hood stuff that’s going on with Windows 7 development. Although Ballmer has described 7 as being “Windows Vista with clean-up in user interface [and] improvements in performance,” this guy seems to think it’s a little more than that. I nursed my hope that 7 would be a completely different experience for a while, but now it seems less and less likely by the day.

Still, it seems that MS has changed up the strategy for putting things together, emphasizing smaller teams with less higher-up input. Teams called “Triads” — one developer, one tester, and one program manager — chisel away at problems and work independently. The poster says this leads to a more integrated approach to creating a feature, and more transparency in management means decisions can be made in good time with enough visibility for the teams to accommodate them.

He says they’re also not afraid to lean down in order to ship faster, which can only be a good thing considering how enormous Vista has gotten. In fact, it looks as if the time it’s taken to get Vista to a real working state may be enough that you can skip right over it with their blessing. Make this something people can put on a netbook, people. Make it something people want to upgrade to. Whether you look on Vista as a qualified success or an utter failure, we can all agree it was more of the same. We’ve really had the same Windows for a decade now. We want to love it, give us a reason!
[via El Reg]

Source: CrunchGear | 17 Oct 2008 | 9:40 pm

Add Drop-Down Menus Using CSS

When you've got too many links to list in one web page, you might want to consider drop-down menus in your site design. Good looking menus are deceptively simple. All you need are HTML list elements and some CSS styles and you can wow your visitors with interactive menus.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Oct 2008 | 9:30 pm

RIM launching a revamped Bold/Storm in 2009

Section: Communications, Accessories, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, VoIP, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous

I’m not kidding. Yes, I realize you are still waiting for the originals, and now you hear news of new and upgraded versions.  Apparently, there is going to be an announcement of a Storm-like device at WES 2009.  Granted, RIM doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to launch dates, so you may want to take that one with a grain of salt.

That fact aside, it does seem like there is indeed going to be a new version of the BlackBerry Storm showing its face complete with U.S. HSDPA this time around.  Some are claiming it is going to be called the “Magnum,” but no official word on that just yet.  The Boy Genius Report was able to snag this leaked photo of the phone.  (thanks guys!)

And that isn’t all.  The leaks also indicate that RIM also has more tech goodies up their sleeve.  Pretty much the Bold revamped.  It has, get this, a touch screen—a QWERTY with a touchscreen. Watch out Palm, you’ve got competition.  Supposedly, it is Curve 8900-sized.  We’ll see if that information changes as the date gets closer.

Obviously, no pricing is available at this time...stay tuned for more details as we get them.

Via [BGR]

Full Story » | Written by Jodie Andrefski for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 17 Oct 2008 | 9:23 pm

Apple Is Greener, Greenpeace Says, But Has More To Do (NewsFactor)

NewsFactor - At last Tuesday's laptop event on the Apple campus in Cupertino, Calif., the environment got a lot of attention. CEO Steve Jobs, who has been pushing for a "greener Apple" for months, flatly declared that the new Mac laptops, with their unibody aluminum construction and less toxic parts, "are the industry's greenest notebooks."
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Oct 2008 | 9:17 pm

Flash and the Pan: 4 Tapeless AVCHD Camcorders Tested

The future is here and it sure doesn't include physical media. Tapeless camcorders using the AVCHD format provide the best solution for recording HD video. Here we take four of these shooters to task and find the best one.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Oct 2008 | 9:17 pm

Flash and the Pan: 4 Tapeless AVCHD Camcorders Tested

The future is here and it sure doesn't include physical media. Tapeless camcorders using the AVCHD format provide the best solution for recording HD video. Here we take four of these shooters to task and find the best one.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 17 Oct 2008 | 9:17 pm

CrunchDeals: Pure silver HDMI cable for only $1,300

If you scoff at Monster Cable’s prices, please don’t keep reading - you’ll have a stroke. This Ethereal HDMI cable has been submitted to DPL Labs with the hopes and dreams to be the longest Class C, Level 5 HDMI cable which means that it can handle the maximum throughput on the scale. This is similar to the testing that Monster Cable showed off at CEDIA ‘08. The product manager indicated that this cable was produced to see “just how good a cable could be.” 

Prepared for the onslaught of 1440p resolutions, the HDM2 has braided shield, double-sided copper foil/Mylar shield, and two single-sided shields. The thick cable measures a hefty 23 AWG.

Oh, and the conductors are made of pure silver rather than plating on top of copper. The 2-meter cable retails for an astounding $1,300 - it even comes with a nice carrying case.

Source: CrunchGear | 17 Oct 2008 | 9:15 pm

CampusBuddy Hands Over Campus Grading Records To Students

For many students, the academic portion of college consists of a four (or more) year quest to find the easiest professors on campus. College may be a time to learn new things, but graduate schools don’t tend to care how much you’ve broadened your horizons - to them, GPA and test scores are all that matter.

There have been a number of popular sites that ask students to rate their professors to help highlight the best (or easiest) ones, but most of the reviews on these sites tend to be highly polarized - students tend to either love a professor or hate them. The same is true for user-submitted grades, as students are more likly to share that they’ve flunked or aced a class than if they’ve done so-so. CampusBuddy, a new Facebook application that launched last week, is looking to take some of the bias out of these ratings. The company has gathered grading records from 250 schools nationwide, allowing students to accurately get a feeling for just how generous a professor is at the end of the term.

Every record in the CampusBuddy database comes from public schools located around the country, as these are legally obligated to release their grades upon request. Pick-A-Prof, a similar rating site, helped pave the way for this kind of database, going as far as suing UC Davis for access to their records. CampusBuddy CEO Mike Moradian acknowleges that the two sites are similar, but says that Pick-A-Prof charges a $10 annual fee while CampusBuddy is free (the site plans to use advertising to generate revenue). He also says that while anyone could conceivably create their own database using this public information, it is very time consuming - some schools have taken up to 8 months to comply with a request.

The CampusBuddy Facebook application also includes some community features, which Moradian says serve as a replacement for the Facebook Network pages that have been eliminated. Users can see other students that are in their classes, leave comments about their school with prospective and current students, and upload and download files from old classes. The app also supports schools that it doesn’t have grades for, as well as high schools. In the next few months CampusBuddy will launch a website to complement its Facebook app, though Moradian says this will depend on when Facebook Connect is finally launched.

The site will see stiff competition from established rating sites including PickAProf and RateMyProfessors. The site will also have to face off with Koofers and Check My Campus on Facebook, both of which were just chosen as winners of cash grants from fbFund.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Source: TechCrunch | 17 Oct 2008 | 9:11 pm

High Fructose Corn Syrup mob tries to take down our own Doug Aamoth

Our writer Doug Aamoth is currently in protective custody after the High Fructose Corn Syrup Council sent an email to us informing us of “incorrect” “facts” about “deadly” and “obesity-causing” high fructose corn syrup.

Their beef?

If you drink a fair amount of soda, carbonated water, tonic, and the like, then the Home Soda Maker is a god-send. It’ll save you from running to the store constantly and you’ll be creating far less waste, if that’s important to you. Plus, the non-diet soda flavors are made without high fructose corn syrup and the diet flavors are made with Splenda instead of aspartame. So if you don’t want to quit drinking soda cold turkey, this machine provides a relatively reasonable alternative.

That’s right. He didn’t directly disparage the syrup in any way, instead suggesting its less refined cousins would be doing the hard job of making things sweet.

The letter follows in its entirety and our official position at CrunchGear regarding corn syrups of all types are that they make great props for kids shows (see Nickelodeon v. Kids Who Say “I Don’t Know”) and racy exotic dance numbers. They are, however, probably not good to eat too much of.

The best thing? The email came from corn.org. I imagine their sysadmin is huge from all the corn syrup he or she ingests.

Mr. Doug Aamoth
Reporter
CrunchGear.com

Dear Mr. Aamoth:

We read the October 16 article “Review: Penguin Home Soda Maker,” with interest. Unfortunately, the suggestion that high fructose corn syrup is an unhealthy ingredient is misleading. We would like to provide you with science-based information on this safe sweetener and be a reference for you for future articles.

Scientific information, sourced from peer-reviewed journal articles that studied high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) specifically, as well as FDA and the USDA, can be found in the following brochure that provides fully cited answers to frequently asked questions about high fructose corn syrup http://www.hfcsfacts.com/images/pdf/HFCSBrochure.pdf. Links for many of the studies noted in the brochure can be found at http://www.HFCSfacts.com/Related_Links.html.

High fructose corn syrup, sugar, and several fruit juices are all nutritionally the same.

The American Medical Association (AMA) recently concluded that “high fructose corn syrup does not appear to contribute to obesity more than other caloric sweeteners.” (American Medical Association. June 17, 2008. Press Release: AMA finds high fructose syrup unlikely to be more harmful to health than other caloric sweeteners.)

Dr. Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and author of “What to Eat” and “Food Politics” told the Spokesman Review “HFCS is glucose and fructose separated. Table sugar is glucose and fructose stuck together, but quickly separated by digestive enzymes. … The body can hardly tell them apart.” (Lamberson C. January 2, 2008. “High-fructose corn syrup may be the next target” Spokesman Review.)

Many studies claim that the body processes high fructose corn syrup differently than other sugars due to the fructose content. Conclusions from these studies cannot be extrapolated to high fructose corn syrup. That is because the studies looked at the effects of fructose independently.

Like sugar, honey and some fruit juices, high fructose corn syrup contains almost equal portions of fructose and glucose. As noted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1996, “the saccharide composition (glucose to fructose ratio) of HFCS is approximately the same as that of honey, invert sugar and the disaccharide sucrose (or table sugar).” (61 Fed. Reg. 43447 (August 23, 1996), 21 C.F.R. 184.1866. Direct food substances affirmed as Generally Recognized as Safe; High Fructose Corn Syrup - Final Rule.)

The absence of glucose makes pure fructose fundamentally different from high fructose corn syrup. This is because glucose has been shown to have a tempering effect on specific metabolic effects of fructose. Once the combination of glucose and fructose found in high fructose corn syrup and sucrose are absorbed into the blood stream, the two types of sweetener appear to be metabolized similarly using well-characterized metabolic pathways.

A considerable body of published scientific research finds high fructose corn syrup both safe and nutritionally the same as other common sweeteners like sugar and honey. Recent scientific studies have shown that the human body appears to metabolize high fructose corn syrup and sugar in much the same way. Like sugar, honey and some fruit juices, high fructose corn syrup contains almost equal portions of fructose and glucose. Both sugar and high fructose corn syrup contain 4 calories per gram.

Kathleen J. Melanson, et al. at the University of Rhode Island reviewed the effects of high fructose corn syrup and sucrose on circulating levels of glucose, leptin, insulin and ghrelin in a study group of lean women. The study found “no differences in the metabolic effects” of high fructose corn syrup and sucrose. (Melanson KJ, Zukley L, Lowndes J, Nguyen V, Angelopoulos TJ, Rippe JM. 2007. Effects of high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose consumption on circulating glucose, insulin, leptin, and ghrelin and on appetite in normal-weight women. Nutrition 23(2):103-12.)

Joshua Lowndes, et al. reported on the effects of high fructose corn syrup and sucrose on circulating levels of uric acid. Uric acid is believed to play a role in the development of the metabolic syndrome. This short-term study found “no differences in the metabolic effects in lean women [of high fructose corn syrup] compared to sucrose,” and also called for further similar studies of obese individuals and males. (Lowndes J, et al. June 2007. The Effect of High-Fructose Corn Syrup on Uric Acid Levels in Normal Weight Women. Presented at the June 2007 meeting of The Endocrine Society. Program Abstract #P2-45.)

Linda M. Zukley, et al. at the Rippe Lifestyle Institute reviewed the effects of high fructose corn syrup and sucrose on triglycerides in a study group of lean women. This short-term study found “no differences in the metabolic effects in lean women [of high fructose corn syrup] compared to sucrose,” and called for further similar studies of obese individuals or individuals at risk for the metabolic syndrome. (Zukley M, et al. June 2007. The Effect of High Fructose Corn Syrup on Post-Prandial Lipemia in Normal Weight Females. Presented at the June 2007 meeting of The Endocrine Society. Program Abstract #P2-46.)

No credible research has demonstrated that high fructose corn syrup affects appetite differently than sugar. Research by Pablo Monsivais, et al. at the University of Washington found that beverages sweetened with sugar and high fructose corn syrup as well as 1% milk all have similar effects on feelings of fullness. (Monsivais P, Perrigue MM, Drewnowski A. 2007. Sugars and satiety: does the type of sweetener make a difference? Am J Clin Nutr. Jul;86(1):116-23.)

Stijn Soenen and Margriet S Westerterp-Plantenga from the Department of Human Biology at Maastricht University in The Netherlands studied the effects of beverages sweetened with sugar and high fructose corn syrup as well as milk on feelings of fullness. The researchers found “no differences in satiety, compensation or overconsumption” between the three beverages. (Soenen S and Westerterp-Plantenga MS. 2007. No differences in satiety or energy intake after high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose, or milk preloads. Am J Clin Nutr 86:1586 -94.)

Tina Akhavan and G. Harvey Anderson at the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto studied the effect of solutions containing sugar, high fructose corn syrup and various ratios of glucose to fructose on food intake, average appetite, blood glucose, plasma insulin, ghrelin and uric acid in men. The researchers found that sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and 1:1 glucose/fructose solutions do not differ significantly in their short-term effects on subjective and physiologic measures of satiety, uric acid and food intake at a subsequent meal. (Akhavan T. and Anderson GH. November 2007. Effects of glucose-to-fructose ratios in solutions on subjective satiety, food intake, and satiety hormones in young men. Am J Clin Nut. Vol. 86(5) 1354-1363.)

Many parts of the world, including Australia, Mexico and Europe, have rising rates of obesity and diabetes despite having little or no high fructose corn syrup in their foods and beverages, which supports findings by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the American Diabetes Association that the primary causes of diabetes are obesity, advancing age and heredity.

Around the world, high fructose corn syrup accounts for about 8 percent of caloric sweeteners consumed. (LMC International, Inc. 2008. Table 2: World Sugar & HFCS Consumption. Sweetener Analysis January 2008.)

USDA data show that per capita consumption of high fructose corn syrup has been declining in recent years, yet the incidence of obesity and diabetes in the United States remains on the rise.

An expert review of the research literature on the dietary role of high fructose corn syrup has found insufficient support for the notion that high fructose corn syrup could play a unique causal role in obesity. The expert panel led by Richard Forshee, Ph.D. of the University of Maryland Center for Food, Nutrition, and Agriculture Policy (CFNAP) concluded that “the currently available evidence is insufficient to implicate HFCS per se as a causal factor in the overweight and obesity problem in the United States.” (Forshee RA, Storey ML, Allison DB, Glinsmann WH, Hein GL, Lineback DR, Miller SA, Nicklas TA, Weaver GA, White JS. 2007. A Critical Examination of the Evidence Relating High Fructose Corn Syrup and Weight Gain. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 47(6):561–582.)

Most sweeteners undergo processing to make the final sweetener. The sugar refining process consists of numerous steps and process aids including: multiple clarifying steps with heat and lime, polymer flocculent and phosphoric acid; multiple evaporation steps; centrifugation; washing with pressure filtration or chemical treatment; and decolorization with carbon or bone char. Hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide, or enzymes are added to liquid sucrose to break the bond between glucose and fructose to make invert sugar. Sucrose from sugar beets is processed by similar methods. (See generally Environmental Protection Agency, AP 42, Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission Factors, Vol. 1, § 9.10.1.1 Sugarcane Processing (5th ed.); Galloway JH. December 1996. History of sugar – Domestication to the 17th Century, abstracted from Annals of the Ass’n of Am. Geographers., Vol. 86, No. 4, at 682-706; Chou CC. 2000. Sugar refining processes and equipment, in Handbook of Sugar Refining: A Manual for the Design and Operation of Sugar Refining Facilities.)

high fructose corn syrup is made from corn starch, which is separated from other kernel components through multiple grinding and screening steps, centrifugation and washing. The high fructose corn syrup refining process utilizes multiple enzymes and magnesium and consists of numerous steps including: multiple refining steps using membrane filters, carbon filters and ion-exchange columns; centrifugation; chromatographic separation; and multiple evaporation steps. (See generally White PJ and Johnson LA. 2003. “Corn Sweeteners,” in Corn Chemistry and Technology, 2nd Edition; Alexander RJ. 1998. “Production and Description,” in Sweeteners: Nutritive; and Corn Refiners Association. 2006. “Manufacture,” in Nutritive Sweeteners from Corn, 8th Edition.)

Fruit juice concentrates are purified through heat and enzyme processing and filtered to remove fiber, flavor components and impurities. The end product is almost identical (in calories, sugars and nutrients) to sugar, honey or high fructose corn syrup. (See generally Nobigrot T, Chasalow FI, Lifshitz F. 1997. Carbohydrate absorption from one serving of fruit juice in young children: age and carbohydrate composition effects. J Am Coll Nutr 16:152-158; Chaplin M, Bucke C. 1990. Enzymes in the fruit juice, wine, brewing and distilling industries, in Enzyme Technology. Cambridge Univ. Press.)

High fructose corn syrup has a strong history as a safe ingredient recognized by food manufacturers and the U.S. government. In 1983, the Food and Drug Administration listed high fructose corn syrup as “Generally Recognized as Safe” (known as GRAS status) for use in food, and reaffirmed that ruling in 1996. (61 Fed. Reg. 43447 (August 23, 1996), 21 C.F.R. 184.1866. Direct food substances affirmed as Generally Recognized as Safe; High Fructose Corn Syrup - Final Rule.)

Please do not hesitate to visit our website, www.HFCSfacts.com, for further information or to contact us if we may be of assistance by providing additional information about the products made from corn.

Thank you for your consideration,

Audrae Erickson
President
Corn Refiners Association
Washington, DC

Source: CrunchGear | 17 Oct 2008 | 8:56 pm

Sprint delays the HTC Touch Pro

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

In a little bit of bad news, the HTC Touch Pro has been delayed with Sprint.  Sure the news of a delay is typically not welcomed, but, in this case, it seems the delay is just a few weeks.  Originally, Sprint had announced back during CTIA they expected to launch the HTC Touch Pro on October 19, but that has now officially been pushed back to a more generic late-October or early-November.  The official reason behind the delay was the they wanted to make sure they “have adequate inventory in all channels before making the device commercially available.” Let’s just hope they are able to roll out the Touch Pro soon and not subject it to any further delays.

Via [Crave]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 17 Oct 2008 | 8:55 pm

Video-Game Sales Slide, But Analysts Optimistic (NewsFactor)

NewsFactor - Sales of the Nintendo Wii game console rose 37 percent in September, but the rest of the industry saw losses. It was the first time in more than two years that the market for consoles and games has seen an overall decline.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Oct 2008 | 8:45 pm

How to Photograph the Microscopic World With Your Digital Camera

There's an entire ecosystem living in that river down the street, or in the pond at your local park. You can easily photograph its many insects, microbes and other denizens with a student-model microscope and a cheap digital camera. In Wired.com's How-To Wiki.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Oct 2008 | 8:45 pm

Alleged Hackers Charged With Highway Robbery, Literally

How do you run a successful trucking company without ever driving a truck? Step one: hack the Department of Transportation.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Oct 2008 | 8:43 pm

Emotion And Scent Create Lasting Memories

When French memoirist Marcel Proust dipped a pastry into his tea, the distinctive scent it produced suddenly opened the flood gates of his memory.In a series of experiments with sleeping mice, researchers at the Duke University Medical Center have shown that the part of the brain that processes scents is indeed a key part of forming long-term memories, especially involving other individuals."We can all relate to the experience of walking into a room and smelling something that sparks a vivid, emotional memory about a family member from years or even decades ago," says Stephen Shea, Ph.D., the lead author of the study published in The Journal of Neuroscience.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Oct 2008 | 8:20 pm

Deadline Extended for Public Comment on Proposed New Principles to Revise the Economic and Environmental Principles and Guidelines for Water and Related Land Resources Implementation Studies

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Oct 2008 | 8:00 pm

Microsoft PDC to feature various technologies (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld - Microsoft bills its upcoming Professional Developers Conference as a gathering of developers and architects and a chance to understand the future of Microsoft's platform. From this backdrop, the Los Angeles conference, which begins on October 26, is set to feature insights on a host of technologies ranging from model-driven software development to cloud computing and the Windows OS.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Oct 2008 | 8:00 pm

NASA Faces More Hubble Trouble

NASA's efforts to get the ailing telescope working again have hit a snag.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Oct 2008 | 7:52 pm

Purported E-Mail From Jobs Defends Firewire's Death

A Mac user claims he received an e-mail from Steve Jobs in response to a complaint about the new MacBooks lacking Firewire ports.

An image posted on Flickr purports to be a screen capture of the e-mail exchange. "David" tells Jobs he is recommending against purchasing the new MacBooks, because they'll no longer be able to support camcorders thank to the lack of Firewire. Jobs' terse response argues that all the recent high-definition camcorders connect via USB 2.0 .

The exclusion of Firewire connectivity on the new MacBooks was the first major complaint to surface when they launched Tuesday. Some are expressing concerns that the omission eliminates the MacBooks' Target Disk Mode, which enables users to boot up their Macs as a Firewire drive -- often used for troubleshooting.

Assuming the e-mail from Jobs is real, I have to side with David. The vast majority of new HD camcorders are hard-drive or flash-based devices, which utilize USB 2.0 for connecting. But camcorder nuts like myself know that most tapeless camcorders are not friendly with the Mac; in some cases they don't work with Macs at all.

I've written a series of articles on this issue in the past, and last I checked this is still a major problem. The tapeless camcorders vary greatly in the codecs and software they use, and the camcorder manufacturers must communicate with Apple to ensure their devices are compatible with Final Cut Pro, iMovie and QuickTime.

Apparently a lot of those manufacturers aren't doing a good job. I've frequently run into problems testing JVCs and Sanyos. And occasionally Sony camcorders don't work so well either. I can only safely say tapeless camcorders from Canon and Panasonic consistently work with the Mac. 

Tapeless camcorders are so unreliable with the Mac that I'm still a Mini DV user. The video editors at Wired.com, who use Macs, also stay away from tapeless devices. If we owned new MacBooks, the lack of Firewire on a MacBook would bug us -- and all those who stuck with the old-fashioned MiniDV-and-Firewire combo for safety's sake.

Your thoughts, Gadget Lab readers? Is Firewire a big deal?

Jobs responds to outrage over MacBook's missing FireWire [AppleInsider]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 17 Oct 2008 | 7:52 pm

Brazil Sponsors Carbon Reduction In Amazon Forest

Conservationists are set to receive money from a Brazilian bank and a global hotel chain in an effort to protect trees and combat global warming in the Juma forest reserve deep in Brazil's Amazon.For other potential donors, mostly in rich countries, who want to help preserve tropical forests as a way to reduce their carbon footprints, this test case will hopefully shed any doubts about accountability and measuring success.The Foundation for a Sustainable Amazon, which runs the project, will receive a $2 million donation over four years from the Washington, D.C., area-based Marriott hotel chain.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Oct 2008 | 7:44 pm

Social networking sites told to warn users of weak privacy controls (AFP)

AFP - Social networking websites were urged Friday to warn users about the low level of protection given to their profiles at a Council of Europe-organised conference on the issue.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Oct 2008 | 7:32 pm

Orbitz, Expedia, Priceline: Less Work Means Less Travel [Voices]

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily

If the economy is going to slow (which it is) and the jobless rate is going rise (which it is), you can safely conclude that people will be traveling less. That’s the core idea behind the call on the online travel sites by Bank of America’s Brian Pitz and Brian Fitzgerald, who today chopped their estimates and price targets on Orbitz (OWW), Expedia (EXPE) and Priceline (PCLN).

• Orbitz: Target to $5, from $8. EPS estimate for 2008 to loss of 17 cents from loss of 15 cents; 2009 to loss of seven cents from positive 19 cents.
• Expedia: Target to $19, from $30; 2008 to $1.38 from $1.40; 2009 to $1.42, from $1.59.
• Priceline: Target to $90, from $154; 2008 to $5.43, from $5.75; 2009 to $5.80, from $7.15.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 17 Oct 2008 | 7:17 pm

Wildfires Pack 1-2 Punch

New study finds substantial loss of carbon, nitrogen from burned soils -- and connections to warming climateFor decades, scientists and resource managers have known that wildfires affect forest soils, evidenced, in part, by the erosion that often occurs after a fire kills vegetation and disrupts soil structure. But, the lack of detailed knowledge of forest soils before they are burned by wildfire has hampered efforts to understand fire's effects on soil fertility and forest ecology.A new study led by the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station addresses this critical information gap and represents the first direct evidence of the toll wildfire can take on forest soil layers. It draws on data from the 2002 Biscuit Fire, which scorched some 500,000 acres in southwest Oregon, including half of a pre-existing study's experimental plots, which had been studied extensively before the fire. The result was a serendipitous and unprecedented opportunity to directly examine how wildfire changes soil by sampling soils before and after a wildfire. The study appears in the November issue of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research."Losing our experiment in the fire was hard, but the opportunity to better understand fire as a dominant ecosystem process has been very exciting," said Bernard Bormann, a research forest ecologist with PNW Research Station and the study's lead investigator. "This study, covering over 300 acres, provided nearly 400 soil sampling points as well as extensive tree and understory plots to use in our analysis."Bormann—along with study co-author and Western Washington University professor Peter Homann and colleagues from the PNW Research Station and Oregon State University—conducted chemical analyses on soil samples collected before and after the fire. They found that the combustion of the organic layer at the soil's surface, including woody debris, caused intense, 1,300 °F-plus temperatures, which, in turn, displaced considerable amounts of carbon and nitrogen from the underlying mineral soil layer and left mostly ash behind. What was more surprising to the researchers was how these organic materials may have been lost. Some carbon and nitrogen were lost as gases—consisting mostly of carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and water vapor—and some in an inch of fine mineral-soil particles, which disappeared and left behind a crust of rocks."Altogether, we documented losses of more than 10 tons per acre of carbon and between 450 to 620 pounds per acre of nitrogen," Bormann said. "The loss of topsoil and combustion of organic materials together led to losses that are higher than most previous estimates."The loss of topsoil and carbon from soil can negatively affect a range of processes, Bormann said, including nutrient retention and water infiltration. In the absence of special nitrogen-fixing plants, which are capable of converting atmospheric nitrogen into nitrogen compounds for growth, losses of nitrogen in the order of what he and his colleagues documented would require at least a century to be reversed.Equally disconcerting is the role these released organic materials might have on the atmosphere, especially in the face of a warming climate. The burning of soil by wildfire may contribute to global warming, in the short term, by releasing carbon as a greenhouse gas and, in the long term, by reducing soil productivity through losses of organic matter and nutrients. With less productive soils, Bormann said, a forest will not grow as quickly nor reabsorb as much carbon as before a burn—a process critical to mitigating the accumulation of atmospheric carbon, which traps heat in the atmosphere and can, thus, raise temperatures."Our findings suggest that forest managers should carefully consider the effects of wildfire on soils when planning to reduce fuels, suppress future fires, and help trees and habitat recover after fire," Bormann said.---Image 2: New research conducted by PNW Research Station scientists and their colleagues on the 2002 Biscuit Fire is the first to document the toll of wildfire on forest soils -- namely, the loss of significant amounts of carbon and nitrogen and 1 full inch of the upper soil layer. The work also raises an intriguing question: might the missing fine soil have been transported away in the fire's massive smoke plume, such as the one seen in this satellite image from July 29, 2002? Large plumes of smoke, some more than 900 miles long, were visible most days during the months-long fire, and scientists know that smoke contains fine mineral-soil particles as well as partially burned organic matter. The possibility that a substantial mass of mineral-soil particles was transported high into the atmosphere raises new questions about the effects of intense fire on radiation interception and offsite land and ocean fertilization. Credit: Image courtesy of MODIS
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Oct 2008 | 6:58 pm

HTC Touch Pro for Sprint slips back a bit

Ready to put your hands all up on Sprint’s version of the HTC Touch Pro on its previously announced release date of October 19th? Weeeell, it turns out you’re going to have to wait a bit longer.

After hearing rumors of launch delays, the folks over at Crave decided to give Sprint a shout. Their response:

Sprint expects to slightly delay launch of the Touch Pro by HTC to ensure we have adequate inventory in all channels before making the device commercially available. Customers can expect the device to become available in select national retailers by the end of the month and then in all Sprint sales channels including online at www.sprint.com and Sprint Stores by early November.

So, they’re having trouble ensuring “adequate inventory”, eh? I can’t possibly imagine what could be slowing things down. Fortunately, it doesn’t sound like it’s slipping back too far - “select national retailers” (read: Best Buy) by the end of the month, and Sprint’s own outlets in early November.

Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

Source: MobileCrunch | 17 Oct 2008 | 6:49 pm

Researchers Breathe New Life Into Classic Experiments

The recent discovery of ageing vials of chemicals in a California lab contain surviving samples from the legendary experiments performed by chemist Stanley Miller in the 1950s.Many believe the samples provide evidence that life may have born violently, in erupting volcanoes in the midst of a thunderstorm.At age 22, Miller was studying for his PhD when he carried out his original, groundbreaking experiments (under his University of Chicago mentor, Harold Urey).By striking electric sparks in a mixture of gases thought to resemble the atmosphere of the young Earth, Miller wanted to test the current ideas for the origin of life.Stanley Miller soon became an instant celebrity when his analysis of the products in the experiments revealed traces of the building blocks of life, amino acids (which combine to make proteins).A former student, Jeffrey Bada, inherited Miller’s materials when he died in May of last year.  It included several boxes containing vials of dried samples from those 1950s experiments, and the accompanying notebooks."We started going through some of the stuff that was piled up in the corner, and here were several little cardboard boxes, taped shut and all dusty, carefully labeled with all of these little vials with dried material from his experiments," said Professor Bada, of the University of California, San Diego.First done in 1952, Miller's well-known experiments used water along with methane, ammonia and hydrogen, the kinds of gases then thought to have dominated the Earth's oxygen-free atmosphere more than two billion years ago.His sparks turned the mixture red, then yellow-brown, and made a number of amino acids, including glycine and alanine, commonly found in proteins.But soon after, those conditions resembled an erupting volcano after Miller had revised the experiments by injecting hot steam into the gas mixture.Not long after Miller's original experiments, it became clear the Earth's early atmosphere was nothing like the "reducing" mixture simulated in his apparatus.The first experiments remained iconic in their attempt at simulating pre-biotic chemistry, but became irrelevant in detail.But Professor Bada says conditions in volcanoes might not have been so different.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Oct 2008 | 6:30 pm

MacBook Turns in Positive Results as Gaming Device

Early tests of Apple's new MacBook suggest the notebook has potential to be a powerful gaming device.

Technology blog Obsessable put a new 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo aluminum MacBook to the test by installing Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning. The video above demonstrates pretty smooth handling of the game, although it's difficult to see just how clear the graphics are, given the low quality of the YouTube format. Nonetheless, Obsessable reports mostly positive results:

In person, there was no pixelation during game play, just a few jittery moments when I had the texture mapping graphics set to their highest and most detailed. These were very few and far between, however.

As unclear as the video might be, it still appears to be a remarkable improvement from Apple's previous-generation MacBooks. As a former Macworld lab tester, I can personally assure you the MacBooks always reported very slow frame rates during 3D game testing -- even running an ancient game like Unreal Tournament.

The positive early impressions may indicate a good move on Apple's part to adopt NVIDIA graphic cards in the new MacBooks, ditching the Intel graphic chips in previous systems. However, this will continue to be a debatable topic as NVIDIA faces a securities fraud lawsuit for allegedly covering up major defects in its earlier graphic processors.

Serious gamers will likely still opt for Windows PC systems, but turning the MacBook into an adequate gaming device should attract a new set of interested buyers -- perhaps casual, occasional gamers looking forward to new titles such as Starcraft II.

See also:

• Hands On With the New MacBooks
• Steve Jobs Unveils Newer, Sexier Aluminum MacBooks
• Liveblog: Apple MacBook Event 2008

Warhammer Online on a MacBook 2008 running XP [Obsessable]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 17 Oct 2008 | 6:06 pm

Industrial landscape photos by Dave Bullock

Talented photographer (and coder!) Dave Bullock took a series of magnificent images of "Industrial Landscapes." Archival 13" x 19" and 17" x 22" prints are also available. Industrial Landscapes

Source: Boing Boing | 17 Oct 2008 | 6:01 pm

The Joy of Tech: Notes on the New Notebooks [Voices]

By Nitrozac and Snaggy

Source: All Things Digital | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:59 pm

Monster band tiki-mugs

Vern sez, "I've been a fan of both the Polynesian tiki scene, and the bubblegum music scene, which often featured studio musicians providing the music for a cartoon band. Those two worlds intersect with a new set of mugs from Tiki Farm - Rigor Morty and the Dirt Nappers. I just received my set, in time for Halloween, and they are sweet. The tallest mug is 9 inches tall. As the Tiki Farm website says - pour yourself a zombie .... in a zombie!"

I love Tiki Farm mugs in general, but this is the very best set I've ever seen. Wow!

Rigor Marty and the Dirt Nappers! (Thanks, Vern!)

Source: Boing Boing | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:58 pm

"Hazy Day," Subatomic Nixons: animated Barminski music video

Butterflies, wah-wah pedals, and one-eyed yeti, ahoy! The Boing Boing tv crew is proud to return to the work of one of our favorite multi-media savants, Bill Barminski of Walter Robot Studios. The filmmaker, composer, illustrator and animator shares this new video work, a hypnotic flight of fancy for his music project, the Subatomic Nixons. Enjoy the "Hazy Day," and happy weekend, everyone. Special thanks to Barminski and Christopher Louie, and all of the Walter Robot team. Here are previous BBtv episodes featuring their work.

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Link to Boing Boing tv blog post with instructions on how to subscribe to the BBtv daily video podcast. Direct MP4 Link.

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Source: Boing Boing | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:48 pm

LG KP500 gets named and priced

Remember that “affordable” touchscreen LG had in the works? As it makes the strides through the development process, it’s been granted a name a bit more consumer friendly than the model number. Further proving that the mobile industry name tank is running low, the KP500 has been redubbed the “LG Cookie”. Seriously. The Cookie.

The main push behind this product was that it’d be affordable. According to GSMArena, “affordable” works out to about 170 euro (about 229 USD). That’s before taxes - but it’s also before subsidies. If subsidies can get this thing in the $100-$150 range, they might just have a hit. Anything more than that, and it might not be competitive; while they’ve squeezed a 3-inch TFT touchscreen and a 3 megapixel camera into its 11.9mm thick body, the Cookie is missing 3G and the video functionality (both recording and playback) is looking to be a bit lackluster.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Source: MobileCrunch | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:44 pm

Fit a Logitech wireless mouse dongle in your Dell Mini

Strider_mt2k explains, at My Dell Mini's forums, how to hack a Mini Inspiron 9 to contain a Logitech RF dongle, but without permanently soldering it in place. Anyone who has ever used a BlueTooth mouse will understand why one might do this.

I received a Dell Mini yesterday, but it's a birthday present for my nephew. Unfortunately, I have already fallen in love with it.

Internal Logitech Nano Receiver Modification [My Dell Mini]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:42 pm

Superstrong 'Buckypaper' Could Be Dream Material

It looks like ordinary paper, it's 10 times lighter and 500 times stronger than steel.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:31 pm

OLED-screen cell phone design speaks truth to complexity

This Nokia Aeon-like concept sketch, by Mac Funamizu, demonstrates how a phone with an OLED-wrap display could look. It is, as Unplggd remarks, the "IPhone Nano You've Always Wanted"; but that is really just a way of saying that it's a minimalist design that hits all the right notes.

The most remarkable thing about it is how it solves unremarkable needs. It imagines technology that makes design simpler: if such display technology was implemented, LCD screen frames and bezels would not only become unnecessary, but immediately seem like pointless ornamentation.

Just a Sketch: Mobile Phone [Mac's website via Yanko and Makezine]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:30 pm

BREAKING: Facebook May or May Not Launch Music Service [Digital Daily]

Looks like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is suffering from a bit of Freudian MySpace Envy. Now that the rival social network has launched what MySpace CEO Chris Wolfe likes to describe as a “mega-music experience,” Facebook is said to be looking for a foothold in the digital music business as well. The New York Post reports that the social network is busy poking the major record labels to gauge their interest in a Facebook music offering. Unlike MySpace Music, which is a joint venture between MySpace and the “Big Four” music labels, Facebook’s music service would more likely take the form of an outsourcing deal with a streaming service like Rhapsody.com or Imeem.com. If there’s a music service at all. Said the Post, “Insiders familiar with the talks further cautioned that nothing is imminent, and Facebook may ultimately walk away from the plan altogether.”

Headless Story Found in Rumor-Filled Bar?

[Image Credit: New York Post]

Source: All Things Digital | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:04 pm

ElectromagneticHealth.Org to Launch at Colorado Bioneers Conference

ElectromagneticHealth.org will launch Saturday at Colorado Bioneers, the annual environmental conference (http://ecenter.colorado.edu/bioneers08). Focused on the fast emerging public health issue of electromagnetic pollution, the website is educational, activist and philanthropic.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:00 pm

Putin's Dog Gets Satellite-Guided Tracking Collar

Putin's black Lab tested out Russia's new satellite-guided navigation system.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Oct 2008 | 4:56 pm

Amazon: Estimates Still Too High? [Voices]

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily

Are estimates still too high for Amazon.com (AMZN)?

Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth thinks so. This morning, he cut his 2008 estimate to $1.40 from $1.56; for 2009, he drops to $1.57, from $2.06. That puts his numbers way below the Street consensus of $1.51 for this year and $1.96 for next year.

Anmuth, who has an Equal Weight rating on the stock, says the company is “one of the best franchises in the Internet sector.” But he thinks the Street hasn’t fully baked in currency headwinds and the slowing economy into their estimates for Q4 or 2009. While the grim Q4 forecast from eBay has “lowered the bar for the e-commerce sector some,” he says, Amazon’s record of outperforming its peers “could mean that hopes remain too high for this stock in the near term despite the recent selloff.”

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 17 Oct 2008 | 4:48 pm

Disco for CPR

Researchers claim that the Bee Gees 1977 tune "Stayin' Alive" is a great track to pace yourself when doing CPR. The song's tempo is 103 beats per minute, very close to the 100 chest compressions per minute recommended by the American Heart Association. For the last two years, the AHA has been suggesting trainees practice to the song. University of Illinois physician David Matlock conducted a study on the use of the song in CPR training and will present his results at the American College of Emergency Physicians conference in a couple weeks. Seems like the AHA should hire a DJ to make a lifesaver mix. From the AP:

Dr. Matthew Gilbert, a 28-year-old medical resident, was among participants in the University of Illinois study this past spring. Since then, he said, he has revived real patients by keeping the song in his head while doing CPR.

Gilbert said he was surprised the song worked as well as it did.

"I was a little worried because I've been told that I have a complete lack of rhythm," he said. Also, Gilbert said he's not really a disco fan.

He does happen to like a certain Queen song with a similar beat.

"I heard a rumor that 'Another One Bites the Dust' works also, but it didn't seem quite as appropriate," Gilbert said.

"Stayin' Alive" has near-perfect rhythm to help jump-start heart

Source: Boing Boing | 17 Oct 2008 | 4:47 pm

Mother 3 English Patch Released!

Mother 3 — the long awaited sequel to the SNES RPG masterpiece Earthbound — has finally been translated into English thanks to the plucky efforts of the Starmen.net translation team.

This has been a longtime coming. Earthbound (otherwise known as Mother 2, and the only Mother game to be released in the States) was released in 1995, and ended on the whiff of a sequel, but Mr. Saturn's Japanese drooglings didn't get to see Mother 3 until 2006, when it was unceremoniously released in Japan.

It was bad timing for an American release: the original, while a cult classic, did not sell well, and the game came out at the very end of the GBA's life cycle. But the Mother 3 Translation Team has been toiling away for the last two years, posting regular blog updates along the way, describing the challenges of hacking the non-conventionally programmed game and translating the quirky text into English.

The process for patching the game is simple: you will need to have a Mother 3 ROM (presumably — but, you know, not necessarily! — from your own legally imported copy of the game) and download the Translation Pack, which contains a one-step patching program for Windows, OS X and Linux. It's really very elegantly done. And make sure to read the translation notes: they're fascinating.

I've been waiting for about thirteen years for this. I'm positively giddy: instead of a weekend spent grinding through a stack of newly arrived Xbox 360 games, I will be lying prone on my couch, taming spiteful crows, battling zombies and hippies, chasing magic butterflies and dodging the incoming charges of Rhinorockets. Who'll be joining me?

Mother 3 Fan Translation Project [Official Site]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 17 Oct 2008 | 4:40 pm

Putin's satellite-tracked dog not a harbinger for anything

Oh, Russia.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's black labrador dog, Koni, Friday was given a collar that will allow her master to track her movements by satellite. ... "She looks sad," Ivanov said. "Her free life is over."

"She is wagging her tail. That means she likes it," Putin said.

It's not like we don't have GPS-based dog collars here in the US. It's just somehow funnier when used by the ex-head of the RKGB.

Putin's dog gets a satellite collar [Reuters.com] (Thanks, Brendan!)

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 17 Oct 2008 | 4:07 pm

Blender Defender terrifies cats that dare approach the kitchen counter

This gentlemen maintains a video collection of his cat's attempts to leap onto his kitchen counters. As he has devised an apparatus that effectively dissuades the cat from doing so, all of them have the same ending.

The Blender Defender [Plamsa 2002 via
Make]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 17 Oct 2008 | 4:05 pm

Pedometer RPG

Bandai proves that no gadget is too simple or everyday not to contain a role-playing game. Its latest example is a pedometer game that comes in two forms: one based on Star Blazers and the other on 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother. Walk, level up, walk, level up ... It's just like Diablo, except you mindlessly exercise a different part of the body and it is not fun.

It's $45 and will hit the online stores in time for Christmas.

Bandai RPG Pedometers animate your steps [CScout]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 17 Oct 2008 | 4:00 pm

Meat art show

Meat After Meat Joy is a meat-themed group art exhibition that just opened at Daneyal Mahmood Gallery in New York City. The show features photographs, sculpture, and multimedia pieces that use, or comment on, "raw meat, the concept of meat, its symbolism and viscera." Seen here, Zhang Huan's "My New York" (Performance Whitney Biennial, 2002). From the show description:

Meat After Meat Joy brings together the work of contemporary artists who use meat in their work... in order to investigate the paradoxical relationship meat has to the body. Meat combines flesh, skin, muscle, organs, blood - each with its own relationship to the body, yet meat's only reference to the body is as a once-upon-a-time living biological thing. By putting these artists together, the exhibition seeks to investigate the uncanny effect meat as a medium is for artist and viewer. This is not a show about meat as spectacle but about meat as signification, precisely because meat does not signify (a body) but its very annihilation...

Meat After Meat Joy

Source: Boing Boing | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:54 pm

Cellphone face rashes caused by nickel sensitivity

Does the flesh on the side of your face bubble and melt whenever you take a call? You might have contact dermatitis triggered by nickel, a common component in cell phones' casing. From Reuters:

"It is worth doctors bearing this condition in mind if they see a patient with a rash on the cheek or ear that cannot otherwise be explained," it [the British Association of Dermatologists] said. ... Many doctors were unaware mobile phones could cause the condition.

Safety concerns over mobile phones has grown as more people rely on them for everyday communication, although the evidence to date has given the technology a clean bill of health when it comes to serious conditions like brain cancer.

Nickel is present in 10 of 22 popular handsets, Reuters reports, but it doesn't chance to name them. As a result of this report, BBG recommends that you immediately stop eating cell phones until the Chinese government takes action.

Doctors warn of rash from mobile phone use [Reuters]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:48 pm

There's no way the "FlashPoint ES Mini-Microwave" is real

According the Book of Joe, this little blip ran in the Financial Times "How to Spend It" magazine. (I don't read the FT on a regular basis, so I don't know if that's a regular addition or what.) It describes the "FlashPoint ES", a portable, unshielded "mini-microwave".

It has to be a hoax. Even if you could get a little magnetron in a battery-powered device, who in their right minds would sell a directional microwave wand?

The only references I can find online stem from Joe's scan of the article, so I'm going to just presume the FT got duped by a clever jerk and go see if that block of chocolate I left on my tabletop uranium slab has turned into hot cocoa yet.

FlashPoint ES Pocket Mini-Microwave [BookOfJoe.com via Oh Gizmo!]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:32 pm

Automatic Accordion

Whether it's for the love of automata, or simply a desire to horrify passers-by with unpleasant Bavarian folk music, Hohner's Magic Organa has got you covered. Check it out at the excellent Automaton Blog.

Automatic Accordion by Hohner Magic Organa

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:29 pm

World's First Known Dog Ate Big Game

Scientists identify the 31,700-year-old remains of what could be the oldest known dog.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:18 pm

Giant Black Holes Destined for Cosmic Collision

Black holes in a pair of galaxies from the very early universe are fighting over food.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:18 pm

Down Low Glow Turns Bikes into Low Riders

The Down Low Glow is a bright tube light for your bike. You strap it on to the bottom of the frame and it puts your ride right in the center of a pool of neon light. Apart from making your bike look like a lowrider, the $110 kit actually makes you safer.

Regular bike lights, whether they blink or burn bright, only shine forwards and back. The Down Low Glow adds a third dimension, making you visible from the side. The light (available in five colors, including hot, hot pink) also marks your territory -- the glow on the ground marks out your space on the road and car drivers keep out, meaning you won't get clocked with the wing-mirror when they pass.

According to the FAQ, the lights are neither waterproof (although they try) or burglar-proof. The batteries are rechargeable lithium ion, so at least they're not affected by the cold, although the lamps may take a little longer to warm up. But if you live in a cold, dry town with low crime rates and a lot of drunken driving, these might be just the thing. Video below.

Product page [Rock the Bike via Cool Tools]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:04 pm

Pent-Up Demand for Vista Apparently Still Pent-Up [Digital Daily]

An interesting metric for you: Of the products listed on Amazon’s Top 10 Bestsellers in Computers & PC Hardware, five are Apple MacBooks. One is an ASUS Eee PC running Linux. One is a Samsung HDTV monitor. And the remaining three are netbook/mini laptops running Windows. Windows XP Home, that is. None run Vista. In fact, Microsoft’s next-generation OS doesn’t appear on the list until No. 25, and puts in just two more appearances after that in the top 50.

An anecdotal observation, to be sure. There are other online PC retailers. Still, Amazon (AMZN) is generally a pretty good barometer of consumer sentiment. Perhaps that sentiment will change with the debut of Windows 7, which, according to Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer, is what Vista should have been. “[Windows 7] is Windows Vista, a lot better,” Ballmer said yesterday. “Windows Vista is good, Windows 7 is Windows Vista with cleanup in user interface [and] improvements in performance.”

Source: All Things Digital | 17 Oct 2008 | 2:47 pm

Q and A: Recycling Astronaut Urine

A NASA engineer chats about a new system to turn pee into drinking water.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Oct 2008 | 2:29 pm

Video: Asus Eee Top Demo Shows Touch Screens Still Not Ready

The folks at German site EE PC News got their hands on the forthcoming Asus Eee Top, an all-in-one desktop with a touch screen. The Eee Top runs Windows XP, but also has Asus' Easy Mode, a skin which looks a lot like the Eee PC Linux interface -- big icons and a tabbed screen selector running along the top.





The hardware looks great: It's somewhere between the old iBooks and the first generation plastic Apple Cinema Displays. In action, though, things aren't quite so smooth. Despite the Easy Mode, XP still chokes, throwing up the usual error dialog box and then freezing altogether.

The demo video also brings up the question of whether touch screens are actually useful. For applications where the user needs to interact with the machine for a short time, touch screens are great -- think ATMs and cash registers. But for general computing, what's the point? The old "arm-ache" problem will remain, and really, if you are interacting with a GUI designed for a mouse, using your fingers is no better.

In fact, it offers a disadvantage: with a mouse, a quick flick of the wrist will move the cursor from one side of the screen to the other. With touch, you need to actually move your hand a lot further.

And this style of all-in-one seems particularly ill-suited. It's perfect for the living room, for movies and photo viewing, but these are done from ten feet away, so you'll stil need a wireless keyboard and mouse (or a long stick).

We want touch to work, and it seems that the computer makers want it to. But it just doesn't fit into the current style of computer interfaces. It's already annoying enough having to switch between keyboard and mouse. Adding in yet another place to move your hands is just making things worse, not simpler.

We predict that touch-computing won't take off until somebody invents a new UI which works with the new input style. Think iPhone, but bigger. The desktop metaphor we know today was invented for the mouse. The iPhone UI was invented for the handheld computer. Touch just won't work as an alternative input method for today's machines.

Seeing as Apple was the first company to bring the mouse driven UI to market with the Macintosh back in 1984, and multi touch in 2007, we're expecting something fancy to emerge from Cupertino. The huge glass multi touch trackpads on the new MacBooks shows that Apple is clearly pursuing touch, The most obvious prediction is a giant iPhone, the fabled MacBook Touch. Who knows? It may not be Apple, but somebody has to do it -- the current touch screen paradigm is broken.

Video: ASUS Eee Top "Hands on" [Eee PC News via Laptop Mag]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 17 Oct 2008 | 2:05 pm

Stick Bug Takes Title as World's Longest Insect

A 22-inch stick bug from Borneo is the world's longest insect, say entomologists.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Oct 2008 | 1:29 pm

RNA-Based Computers Could Make House Calls

Researchers assemble an RNA-based computer that can functions within a cell.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Oct 2008 | 1:23 pm

The Verbatim Transcript of Ballmer on Yahoo Deal: Separating Fiction From Truth [BoomTown]

While many would like to see Microsoft reignite its bid for Yahoo, and as much as even good reporters insinuated that its CEO Steve Ballmer (pictured here) said yesterday in an appearance that he was interested in reopening merger talks, the company will not and he is not.

While some are surmising that Ballmer is playing a little game of cat-and-mouse with Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, I would say what happened yesterday was more a woeful misconstruing of what was said, combined with Ballmer’s tendency to be less than careful with his words.

Kind of like executive Tourette Syndrome.

Here is what is true, based on talking to numerous sources:

1) As was reported here a week ago, Microsoft (MSFT) has never stopped being interested in doing a search deal with Yahoo (YHOO). In fact, it is hoping Yahoo will consummate its deal with AOL.

Microsoft hopes its can then step in and grab the search business from Google, which has a search deal with AOL and is trying to complete a deal with Yahoo too.

Microsoft execs, sources said, think regulators will determine that the combined Yahoo and AOL will be too large a partner for Google (GOOG), due to its dominance over the market.

As you will see from the verbatim transcript below, a search deal, and not a larger one, was what Ballmer was referring to, when he said a deal made “sense economically.”

Just to underline that, a Microsoft spokesman said this, after Ballmer’s comments were reported as a larger interest in all of Yahoo: “Our position hasn’t changed. Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo. There are no discussions between the companies.”

Believe it.

2.) And believe this: AOL and Yahoo are still in serious talks, which have accelerated over the last week. Execs from many levels of Yahoo are now in the process of meeting to determine how to integrate the companies.

This is the deal that is most likely to come first, if the pair can quicken the pace and be less foot-draggy.

Price remains a big issue, of course, especially as the Wall Street meltdown has hit the stocks of both Yahoo and AOL owner, Time Warner (TWX).

Frankly, given the deeply worrying economic indicators that are more likely to hit the advertising businesses of AOL and Yahoo harder than most, both should realize they have to act as zero time to act as if they have all the time in the world.

3.) If they do not act, Yahoo is in a very dicey situation. Reporting its third-quarter results next week, which will likely not to be as bad as expected, the potential for disaster is actually in the upcoming fourth quarter.

Yahoo’s low stock price leaves it vulnerable to a range of other buyers, especially private equity funds, which might buy it and cut it up, selling off the various parts.

This is not a good thing.

One thing that Ballmer said was correct; it makes much better sense for Yahoo and Microsoft to find some common ground and find a way to partner.

Frankly, another go at a merger should even be on the table–and that should be obvious to Ballmer.

Finally, here is the verbatim transcript of Ballmer at the Gartner ITXpo in Florida yesterday:

NEIL MCDONALD: So advertising and all that business model change that certainly has to be the driving force for why you were very interested in acquiring a company called Yahoo, whose stock we noticed has continued to drop. So we have to ask you if the acquisition made sense eight months ago, why wouldn’t it make even more sense now, now that the price would presumably be a lot lower?

STEVE BALLMER: Well, I don’t know if the price would be lower. We offered $33 not too long ago, and it’s $11-1/2 today, and so I don’t know what price might have really gotten the job done. It’s clear that Yahoo did not want to sell the company. It didn’t want to sell when we offered $33. You’ve got to believe they don’t want to–if they thought the company was worth more than $33 six months ago, they probably still think it’s worth at least $33 today. And so I think what we learned through that is, look, they want to remain independent. Perhaps there will continue to be opportunities to partner around search. We’re not in any discussions with them, but that was an offer we made after the acquisition had fallen through. We’ll see. I still think it would make sense economically for their shareholders and ours.

Source: All Things Digital | 17 Oct 2008 | 1:00 pm

Juniper: UBS Upgrades on Valuation; Stock Rallies [Voices]

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily

UBS communications technology analyst Nikos Theodosopoulos this morning upped his rating on Juniper Networks (JNPR) to Buy from Neutral, while maintaining his $21 price target.

“Although JNPR is not immune to macroeconomic weakness, our channel checks suggest solid demand for service provider IP routers,” he writes. He thinks Juniper can hit at least the low end of its 2008 revenue guidance.

Despite the upgrade, he trimmed estimates, and now sees 2008 EPS at $1.03, down from $1.04; for 2009 he goes to $1.16, from $1.38. He now forecasts sales growth of 11 percent this year and 14 percent next year, down from 15 and 17 percent. “Global telco capex and IT spending are at risk in 2009,” he writes.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 17 Oct 2008 | 12:41 pm